Vegan Christmas Goose — Traditional German Recipe (2024)

Peel the apples and onions and cut them into small cubes. Heat some oil in a pot and add the onion cubes and sauté until they become slightly translucent. Then add the apple pieces and stir in, sauté briefly. Deglaze with the red wine and reduce everything until almost all the liquid has disappeared, then fill up with the stock. Add the spices, orange peel, and cubed orange and bring to boil briefly. Remove the filling from the pot and set it aside.

In a food processor, add jackfruit (or beans of choice) and pulse 6 times for 3 seconds. Then add all remaining ingredients. Process for several minutes. You want the mixture to come together into a dough you can handle. If it seems too dry and is crumbly, add in some more vegetable broth (1 teaspoon at a time) until it comes together.

Remove dough from food processor and place onto a clean dry surface. You can either let it rest overnight or knead it until it’s filled with ribbon from the vital wheat gluten (it takes around 20 minutes).

Once the dough is ready divide the dough into 5 pieces: 1 large piece and 4 small pieces (for the legs). The leg and wing pieces should be about the length of your thumb and 2 x the width of your thumb. Roughly form into a goose. Don’t worry about the legs and wings not sticking to the large piece yet. Once we covered all pieces in rice paper skin we’ll attach them with toothpicks. Cover dough with a damp cloth to prevent drying while you prepare rice skin.

Add all of the ingredients for the rice paper skin, except the rice paper, to a shallow dish or pie pan and whisk. Place one sheet of rice paper into the liquid and let it sit there until it becomes completely soft. This takes several minutes.

Gently lift the softened rice paper from the dish and place it on top of the large seitan pice and fold the edges of the rice paper up around the roast.Continue tucking or pressing the edges of the paper around the roast. The paper should be very soft and sticky and cling well to the dough.

For the goose legs cut about a quarter out of the rice paper using scissors. This way the rice paper can easily be folded around the smaller pieces. Cover with more rice paper if needed. To prevent the vegan goose skin from getting wrinkles, you can cut small slits into the rice paper skin, or poke holes into it. Cut off excess rice paper.

Pin the plant-based goose legs to the goose body with toothpicks. Tie them to the body with kitchen twine if needed. To do this, simply knot the twine around the goose. Just how you would do it with a real goose before it goes into the oven.

Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F top and bottom heat. Place apple filling that you set aside earlier into a dutch oven or large and high roaster. Whisk together all ingredients for the frying stock. Then pour in the frying stock. Now carefully place the vegan Christmas goose onto the filling.

Cook covered in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. The vegan goose must not touch the lid, or bottom, otherwise, the skin will stick to it and tear off. Then remove the lid. Give the top of the roast a spray of oil or light brushing. Return to the oven and roast uncovered until the skin is nice and crispy. It takes around 40 minutes, but check on it regularly.

Serve vegan goose hot, with sides of your choice and gravy.